5 Insignificant Things That Determine Who You Have Sex With

#2. Whether You Approach Them or They Approach You

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When you see an attractive person in a bar, chances are you will start working up the courage to go over and say hello. You want to seem assertive and sure of yourself, after all, and people admire that sort of thing, right?

Not so fast. Who walks up to whom in a bar or club could be the deciding factor in getting those phone digits. It turns out the best chance you have of getting that special someone interested in you may be if you can somehow get them to be the one to approach you.

GettyThat should do it.

Science Says:

Don't mix up what we're saying here -- it sounds stupidly obvious to say, "The one doing the approaching tends to be the one who finds the other more attractive." Well, duh. That's why they approached them. Right?

That's not the point; the point is that if we put a gun to your head and made you approach a completely random guy or girl, the act of approaching will make you find that person more attractive.

GettyThe obvious conclusion? Guns make everything sexy.

According to experiments, anyway. The researchers set up a "speed dating" situation where pairs would be randomly matched. When women were the ones who remained seated, they were pickier about the men they found attractive. But when the positions were reversed, they became 2 percent more likely to say yes to a potential date. Men showed an even more drastic difference, with those approaching the seated women 7 percent less likely to say they were attracted to her.

Getty"I see you can bend your body at a 90-degree angle for relaxation ... I like that."

It also brought the number of men and women who said yes to a potential partner almost exactly even, indicating that women's perceived "pickiness" when it comes to men may just be the fact that it has always been more socially acceptable for men to approach them first.

Getty"At this point it's either decades of intimacy or turning slightly to the left."

#1. Your Level of Facial Scarring

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Let's say you're a not just a man, but a real man. We here at Cracked know what that's like. You've lived a hard life out on the streets. Every day is a struggle to survive, filled with knife fights and dancing.

We understand your struggles, man. Sometimes 4/4 time is hard.

Maybe you got cut during one of these beautifully choreographed West Side Story-type numbers and are worried that your sex life (and film career) is over. Don't despair: Women find men with facial scars extremely attractive.

Unfortunately, if you are looking for "the one," women are more likely to see scarred men as dangerous seekers of adventure (i.e., short-term sex partners) than as mates with whom to settle down.

Getty"Yeah, this was a mountain lion. He tripped me up and I fell onto the TV stand."

And if you're a woman and you're thinking that it's the same opposite effect as the other items on this list, because no man could love a scarred woman, well, it turns out it really doesn't matter either way.

Science Says:

At least one study found that women actually rate men with "post-traumatic scarring" more attractive than men with no scars. Once again, we owe this to evolution. A man with facial scars is seen as a survivor of difficult fights, possibly with a saber tooth tiger. This in turn means his children would be more likely to survive if they ever had a run-in with some large, deadly animal.

Getty"I may die from trauma any minute, but yes. Sex."

Women's interest in these men was purely short-term, though, indicating once again that women like manly men (read: the asshole who will start bar fights and end up with scars all over his stupid, manly face) for sexual flings, while they gravitate to more "feminine" men for long-term relationships and the care of their children.

Strangely, the study did not find a preference for or against women with facial scars, possibly indicating once again that men aren't that picky. Who cares if she has been in a few knife fights, as long as there's the chance she'll still sleep with you?

Getty"Hey, doll, is that a knife or ... it's a knife. Right. My wallet's in my coat."

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